Sumario

n the wee hours of the morning, a police constable discovers the body of a woman lying in yard. The victim is Cathy Lane and the medical examiner determines she was strangled and that her throat was slit. The attack probably lasted no more that a few minutes but the killer tried to gut her as well. The police, led by newly appointed DI Joe Chandler, at first focus on her husband Rob Lees, a brute of a man who also happens to be a butcher, but he has the perfect alibi: he was in the drunk tank at Charing Cross station at the time of the murder. Ripperologist Edward Buchan suggests to them that the murder is identical to Jack the Ripper's first murder victim, attack on Emma Jones matches one over 100 years ago. DI Chandler soon recognizes a pattern to the killings, much as Buchen suggested. His major problem however is that his squad, led by DS 'Skip' Miles, have absolutely no respect for him and see him as just another fast-track university graduate who knows nothing about policing on the street.